Superstitious And Cowardly Lot
by Blue-Inked Frost
Summary: Criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot. Short crossover with Batman. An Athkatlan vigilante sponsors the next generation.


_Summary:_ Criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot. Short crossover with Batman. An Athkatlan vigilante sponsors the next generation.

_Note:_ Also based on some RPG ideas kicked around by Serenity Frost. DC reference: Steph and Cass, Best Friends Forever: scans-daily. dreamwidth. org [/] 107420. html. And a Narbonic reference too.

—

Criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot.

This, of course, is due to their underprivileged societal status and oppression of their tyrannical class-based overlords, which unfair treatment leads them with no choice but to commit criminal acts for survival. They lack the education to lead them out of the endless cycle of poverty and only a proletarian revolution led by enlightened souls has the true potential to change society for the better.

Until then, Flying Squirrel Woman roamed the night dressed in a flying squirrel costume to instill such fear in them.

It takes a truly exceptional persona to engage in vigilante activity. The agility of a cat, for instance. The strength of at least a miniature pony for short bursts at a time. The constitution of an ox. A fair intelligence. Vast resources in time and finance. And a motivation, such as one's parents being murdered before one's eyes.

Nalia De'Arnise, it turned out, had many of the suitable qualities for a superhero vigilante.

She hired extras when logistics failed her.

There was the first Opossum Boy, or rather, Opossum Man, rescued from the Circus after grave peril to his family. He left to become Quaylewing. And there was the second Opossum Boy. Rescued from an already-troubled situation as an apprentice to a Zhent, he continued along a dark path and was killed. Or may have been later, dubiously, raised once more by evil Cyricist priests to avenge his own death on his former friends. The third Opossum Boy, who lasted quite some time, was known as Biff the Understudy, talented at stalking around in case people needed him to say memorised lines.

And there was the first, fallen Hedgehog Girl, who became Pythia, a wingless, one-legged avariel, crippled and yet knowledgeable in the ways of magic...with scrying balls _all over the entire city._

And then in a time when Athkatla, victim of natural disasters and vampiric invasions, became No Amnian's Land, abandoned: Pythia adopted two young girls into the family.

Kove-rahs flipped Beta into the mat.

Kove-rahs flipped Beta into the mat.

Kove-rahs flipped Beta into the mat.

"Jeez. Can't'cha take a break?"

The fair-skinned blonde looked up at the brunette.

"I was trained to be the best the world has ever known," Kove-rahs Dosan said. "My mother gave me a sword before she gave me a bottle. My father gave me a hidden spark of divine essence and the will to conquer. I have their combined fighting skill and more, and a will of hatred against all mankind."

"My dad only cloned me from Mum's bloody bandages and toenail clippings," Beta Samael said. "You can tell by what he named me. Cruel joke, really. Of course, Mum's the reigning Lady of Murder."

"My father Sarevok and my mother Shar-Teel fight with swords each time they meet," Kove-rahs said. "I learned the language of war long before I learned human speech so I would achieve my father's dreams of godhood."

"I was just raised by goblin nannies and Uncle Monty," Beta said. "Then I got the compulsion to foil Dad's Zhentish necromantic crimes under a costumed vigilante identity."

"The necromancer. My father spoke of Xzar Samael as a pathetic villain with an inferior evil laugh," Kove-rahs said. "My mother spoke of him as yet another useless male."

"Okay, Dad always was a little scared of Mum's big brother," Beta said. "You win that one."

"I win every one," Kove-rahs said. "Your fighting is not good."

"But I never give up," Beta said. "I guess I go out in the night because... You grow up looking up to your father, and then you want to take care of him as well as the people he hurts in his mad experiments. What about you?"

"My father tries to take over whole kingdoms and my mother tries to slay countries," Kove-rahs said. "That's why I'm a superhero."

"Okay, you win again," Beta said. "Dad and Uncle Monty are still pretty mean, y' know. He likes to guilt-trip me for taking care of my vat for nine-and-a-half months before he decanted me, and Uncle Monty used to lock me in the closet when he was mad at me. What'd Sarevok Anchev and Shar-Teel Dosan do to you when you messed up?"

"Shot me with crossbows, of course," Kove-rahs said.

"...Okay," Beta said, and then the Flying Squirrel signal flashed through Athkatla skies. "You know what they say if you really can't beat them at anything?"

"Patrol route for Rotter and Hedgehog Girl," Pythia the chair-bound avariel spoke via portable crystal ball. "Two-Face Delryn spotted in the Copper Coronet Quarter..."

"Same time tomorrow for training?" Kove-rahs said.

—

_end_


End file.
